Twiggy
Member
Registered: 15th Oct 04
User status: Offline
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Get a turkey............... Once a year 
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Bonney
Member
Registered: 14th Nov 04
Location: St Helens
User status: Offline
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Geese are good for a bit of security, Bloody visoius aswell!!!
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mattk
Member
Registered: 27th Feb 06
Location: St. Helens
User status: Offline
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been told off for having my shed where it was, so me and Bonney66 moved it this morning, Ive raised it off the ground on bricks to keep the chickens free from damp,. Il be kitting it out for them tomorrow, ready for them to move in 
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DannyB
Premium Member
Registered: 6th Feb 08
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You building nest boxes for them Matt?
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mattk
Member
Registered: 27th Feb 06
Location: St. Helens
User status: Offline
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been a long time since an update
as I was out of work when I got the allotment I didnt have a lot of dosh to do it up, now Im back in work though Ive started to do it up a bit, Im miles behind the other fellas on the allotments, theirs are all really posh
I have 2 sheds now and 13 chickens, Ive put a patio in so I have somewhere to have my BBQs and Ive chucked a fence up to keep the chickens out, they destroy plants and grass, the patio side Im going to try and make a nice little garden out of and grow a few veggies, and behind the fence Im in the process of making a fence front to back between the 2 sheds to make 2 seperate runs, I have a pair of rare breed chickens comming that will live in the shed on the right, Im going to have a bash at breeding them
heres the pics, just need to paint the back of the gate on the left
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dannymccann
Member
Registered: 9th Aug 06
Location: Doddington, Lincolnshire
User status: Offline
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mattk
Member
Registered: 27th Feb 06
Location: St. Helens
User status: Offline
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got my self a cock!
Il be rearing some chicks hopefully when spring comes, too hard to do it in the cold weather
one of my rescue chickens died on friday though, I was fucking gutted 
anyway here is a pic of big fella
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Colin
Member
Registered: 4th Apr 02
User status: Offline
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Roast chicken for dinner today then?
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Kathryn W
Member
Registered: 12th Oct 03
Location: Widnes, Cheshire
User status: Offline
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Is all that space for the chickens?
What fruit/veg you going to be growing?
I'd love an allotment
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mattk
Member
Registered: 27th Feb 06
Location: St. Helens
User status: Offline
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the fence in pic 2 is to keep the chickens back, I have 23ft in front of that to my self, Im going to put another shed on my side of the fence for me to sit in and put my cans and BBQ stuff in, gonna make a little garden of my side hopefully make a box above ground full of compost for me to try and grow veg in, gonna have a bash at carrots cabbage and spuds in spring
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JadeM
Premium Member
Registered: 9th Feb 06
User status: Offline
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Matt I'd love a vegetable patch when we get our back garden sorted. I was watching Saturday Kitchen on the TV at the weekend, one of the chefs has an awsome Aalotment, he grows everything you can think off! It must be great watching them grow, then be able to go out and pick them fresh when cooking 
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Daimo B
Member
Registered: 20th Mar 00
User status: Offline
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Just a heads up..
Foxes will be able to jump over that fence....
They can bloody jump high, so far they can jump on top of my garage!!!!
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willay
Moderator
Organiser: South East, National Events
Premium Member
Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by mattk
Il be rearing some chicks hopefully when spring comes, too hard to do it in the cold weather
How do you plan to rear the chicks, steal some eggs from the chickens and put them in a box with a light etc?
Last month one of our chickens laid about 6 eggs or so and what we tend to do is kidnap the eggs&chicken and put them in their own hutch away from the rest of the chickens and cockerels. Made sure the hutch was nice and clean, plenty of food and water and then after a extended amount of time she hatched 3 healthy chicks! Again we kept them in the hutch until they were a suitable size to come out, in the past we have left the hens and chicks to do their thing but what normally happens is the chicks get wiped out by either cats, other hens, drowning in water bowls (happened once) and FOXES!
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mattk
Member
Registered: 27th Feb 06
Location: St. Helens
User status: Offline
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yeah Ive got a rabbit hutch ready for them, Il be doing it the natural way the same as you said.
I have a hen the same breed as the cockerel (they are cochins) one of the cochins strenghts as a breed is they go broody very easily and so they are very easy to breed.
the rescue chickens are feathering up fantasticly, Il get som pics of them, they look like hedgehogs
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willay
Moderator
Organiser: South East, National Events
Premium Member
Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
User status: Offline
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where did you get your hens from?
We dont have any hens now and have bamptons (sp) which arent egg layers so all they are doing at the moment is eating out corn and laying an egg every 3 days or so which isnt enough. We are planning to get rid of them by either execution, give them away or wait for them to die off. After that we should be on the hunt for another bunch of hens to lay some tasty eggs.
Have you noticed the magic which is proper free range eggs? how yellow and tastier they are and so on?
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mattk
Member
Registered: 27th Feb 06
Location: St. Helens
User status: Offline
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the eggs are fantastic! very high demand for them too, I was getting 14 eggs a day before the nights drew in, egg production stops as it gets cold and the days shorten, only had 1 egg today, they will start up again soon, fella next door has a few bantoms, they are hillarious, just look like my chickens but 1/4 the size
I get my hens from a farm a few miles away, got the cockerel from a fella next door but one, he bred a flock of cochins, he hatched 8, 6 of which were males (he wanted as many females as possible)
so he was stuck with 6 cocks he didnt want, and said I could have it or he was gonna kill it so I took it, I asked him where I could get a female cochin to breed, he kindly gave me one for nothing 
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willay
Moderator
Organiser: South East, National Events
Premium Member
Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
User status: Offline
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yeah we were very lazy with controlling breeding, we just let them do what they wanted so at the height of our chicken career we had like 15 in total, with about 4 cockerels which as you can imagine turned into massive brawls at points
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Twiggy
Member
Registered: 15th Oct 04
User status: Offline
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Updates?
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mattk
Member
Registered: 27th Feb 06
Location: St. Helens
User status: Offline
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Got a new chicken, its a right evil looking thing, its the same brred as the cock so they shall be having chicks in the spring
not got much to do over there at the min, its too cold and wet, just gonna try and keep the chickens happy till after christmas, gonna be lovelly come spring!
[Edited on 07-12-2009 by mattk]
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Hammer
Member
Registered: 11th Feb 04
User status: Offline
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Is the cockerel willing to shag that thing? Ugly fucker.
[Edited on 07-12-2009 by Hammer]
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mattk
Member
Registered: 27th Feb 06
Location: St. Helens
User status: Offline
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lol its shags everything, lots
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Twiggy
Member
Registered: 15th Oct 04
User status: Offline
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What you got growing?
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Nismo
Member
Registered: 12th Sep 02
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by mattk
Got a new chicken, its a right evil looking thing, its the same brred as the cock so they shall be having chicks in the spring
not got much to do over there at the min, its too cold and wet, just gonna try and keep the chickens happy till after christmas, gonna be lovelly come spring!
[Edited on 07-12-2009 by mattk]
That is a nasty bugger
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Bart
Member
Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
User status: Offline
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^^ should call the one Leory.
Willay/Matt, assuming you both have allotments, have often do you visit, espically with chickens etc?
I wouldnt mind doing something similar, but I can imagine its quite demanding?
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mattk
Member
Registered: 27th Feb 06
Location: St. Helens
User status: Offline
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first thing in the morning to let them out and then just after its gone dark to put them away, I pop down during the day though and do anything that needs doing down there, always something to do down there
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